The science or art of retail environments, pricing, and promotions is complex. Many factors can influence consumer spending and retention, including, but not limited to, store location and layout, staff behavior, cleanliness, product placement, presentation, pricing, and promotions. Each of these factors in isolation can somewhat readily be understood but, taken in combination, can be very difficult to balance in order to increase profits.
In order to better understand this problem, some retailers employ internal and external consultants that use a combination of science and experience to analyze the various factors that impact profits. While these consultants provide valuable information, they are still somewhat predictive rather than analytical. Their experience may cause them to predict how to optimize the factors in a manner that is not necessarily supported by reality. The cost of having such consultants revisit a retail location repeatedly with any regularity can outweigh the benefits. Further, the evaluation of any changes to the factors can be costly and slow.
Market analytics performed using sales data can provide some insight on a macro level, but, by itself, may not paint a full picture of the behaviors and decisions made by consumers. While consumers often have a logical basis for their shopping and purchasing behaviors, it can be difficult to understand what decisions they are making in the retail environment. Further, in other cases, there are less logical reasons for the shopping and purchasing behaviors of consumers that are hard to measure. Often, there are physiological responses that accompany such decisions and behaviours that are imperceptible by other humans.